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Sunday, September 12, 2010

One things the girls and I love to make is homemade pizza. Papa Bear loves it when we make it. So, Thursday I had already taken stuff out to make pasta with Italian sausage and an Italian salad. Then it donned on me... let's just make pizza....(dough recipe at bottom of post)

And so we did...... The recipe I use is fast and easy.

There are very few ingredients.

I think only four or five to be exact. And rising time is only two hours!! Amazing!

Did I mention how very, very good the dough is?

And did I mention how very, very much fun my girls had helping me make it?

I think a little too much fun!

I was just happy they wanted to help!

I look terrible, like I'm half-bald here...but we needed one group picture, right?

While the dough was rising I glanced over at Lena and she was wearing Emil's glasses thingy he wears to check stones....

So, the dough was punched down and left to rise again for 30 mins.

Then it was time to decorate our dough!

I do have a pizza stone but I seriously don't like using it. Once I put my dough on there it starts shriveling up and getting small....the sides pull in...it's just not something I plan to use unless I absolutely HAVE to...or maybe I just am not using it right?!?!

So for now I use my old cookie sheet....and it works perfectly! The pizza was absolutely delicious! There were a few dough balls left so the girls had pizza for breakfast the next morning. Papa Bear wanted me to make us breakfast pizza but that didn't happen this time.

I remember when I was in high school and the grocery store near my school had a breakfast deli. Sometimes Mom and I would wake up early and she would take me to H-E-B and we would get breakfast pizza. She would drink coffee, I had soda, then she dropped me off at school. Ohhhh, sometimes I wish I could go back to those simpler times!

Anyhow...my dough recipe is from Teresa Guidice's cookbook "Skinny Italian." Let me tell you it is soooo good! If you don't have one I highly recommend you find one. Right now they are selling on Amazon for around $11! I like to keep things real and all her recipes are simple and easy to make, with REAL attainable ingredients. I simply HATE recipes that call for all this weird, crazy, hard to find ingredients that you will probably never use again in your life! Well, at least not for a really loooooong time, or until you make that recipe again!

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So this is the simple recipe for Teresa's

"Old World Pizza Dough"

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for rising

1 1/4 tsp. instant bread machine yeast

4 1/2 cups bread flour, as needed

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

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1. To make the dough by hand, combine 1 3/4 cups cold water, the oil and yeast in a large bowl.

Stir in 1 cup of the flour and the salt. Gradually stir in remaining flour to make a sticky dough that us too stiff to stir. Turn the dough on a well floured work surface. (Mine never leaves the bowl!) Knead about five minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic, when you stretch it a couple of inches in opposite directions it will snap back into shape. The dough will be slightly sticky so don't over-flour it.

2. Cut the dough in 6 equal parts. (I cut my dough in about 8 parts. This size works better for us.) Pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a 13x9 baking dish. Place each ball into the dish, turn to completely coat with oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough stand at room temperature until the balls double in size, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch the balls down, recover and let them rise again, about 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 475. Top with your favorite toppings. Pizzas should bake 8-10 minutes. The dough will start to brown and "blister."

Honestly, this is the easiest, fastest, most delicious homemade dough you will ever make! Trust me!!!